Monday, 21 February 2011

There is hope.

It is beginning to happen. Little dark buds are swelling and turning yellow ... just ready to burst into bloom when the sun shines!

Winter has lasted a long time - or so it appears. The branches have been bare, almost looking as if they were dead. However, all the time there's been something happening and we're beginning to see signs of change.

The Parish Hall grounds have a number of Forsythia bushes so it was relatively easy to find the buds.

Forsythia was discovered in Chine by Robert Fortune. It was named after William Forsyth who was the director of the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1770 and was also the first designer to make a rock garden in England.

I hadn't realized until today that this plant is related to the olive! They do say that you learn something new every day!

Maybe the forsythia is a parable for today ... never give up. When everything appears to be hopeless, even dead, there is still life working away in secret and new growth can and will appear. Sun, rain and nutrients in the soil all work together to herald spring again! There is hope! Never give up!

2 comments:

Once again I have found one of your posts really encouraging. I'd never thought of forsythia as a sign of hope like the olive tree. I didn't know they are related. I savagely attack our forsythia shrubs every year, sometimes cutting them almost to the ground, but they are indestructable and flower all the better in the end.

Thanks Nancy ... sometimes something like a bursting bud just "speaks" into situations that can appear very dark and bleak ... reminders that spring will come, there is life in apparently dead wood and new growth is possible.The best way to deal with forsythia is, as you do, cut it right back ... then you get thick bushes covered in flowers the following spring.

Elizabeth the Rector

I'm a Parish Priest in Belfast.
After reading geography at Queen's University, Belfast I began a teaching career in Lurgan Technical College. Then, after three years of further study in London Bible College (The London School of Theology) I began teaching Religious Studies in Kilkeel - in the school where I'd been a pupil!
In 1999 I resigned from that post and began a two year course in Dublin; both at the Church of Ireland Theological College and The Milltown Institute, in preparation for the ordained ministry.
The curacy years were in Bangor Abbey and then I moved to the country as rector of two small parish churches.
In 2008 I accepted a call to Saint Nicholas' on the Lisburn Road in Belfast.
Keep up to date with the church information at:
http://saintnicholasparishchurchbelfast.shutterfly.com/